BWF World Championships 2026 Predictions: Who Wins Each Title in Delhi
Five titles, seven days, and a draw that has already lost three seeded pairs before a shuttle has been struck. Below is what the consensus says about each discipline in New Delhi — from the BWF’s own preview pieces, Olympic Channel coverage and the Korean and Indonesian press — followed by our own pick and the dark horse we think is being underrated.
One honest caveat before we start: badminton at this level is not very predictable, and the men’s doubles record proves it. Six different pairs from five countries have won that title in the last six editions. Treat everything below as reasoning, not prophecy.
Men’s singles
Update, 17 August: this call is already wrong. Shi Yuqi lost his opening match to India’s unseeded Ayush Shetty, 21-14, 13-21, 21-19, and is out of the tournament. We have written about how it happened and what our reasoning missed. The rest of this section is left as originally published.
What the consensus says
Shi Yuqi is the near-universal favourite. He is world number one, top seed, and the reigning champion after taking his maiden world title in Paris in 2025 — and no Chinese man has successfully defended the title since Chen Long. Kunlavut Vitidsarn, the 2023 champion and Olympic silver medallist, is the most commonly named challenger at seed 2.
Beyond that pair, previews consistently flag two Frenchmen — Christo Popov, who won the Japan Open this season and is seeded 5, and Alex Lanier at 9 — plus the 2021 champion Loh Kean Yew lurking at 13. Indian coverage centres on Lakshya Sen, seeded 14, with national coach Pullela Gopichand putting it plainly: Sen can beat anybody in the world on his day.
Our pick
Winner: Shi Yuqi. The seeding, the ranking and the form all point the same way, and his opening round against an unseeded debutant is as gentle a start as the top seed could ask for. We are not going to be contrarian for its own sake.
Dark horse: Victor Lai (seed 7, Canada). This is the name we think is being systematically underrated in Indian coverage. In June he became the first Canadian ever to win a Super 1000, beating Jonatan Christie 21-19, 21-8 in the Indonesia Open final in front of a hostile Istora Senayan crowd, having taken out world number 6 Chou Tien-chen in the semi. He also took bronze at the 2025 World Championships. A player who wins 10 of 11 games at a Super 1000 and handles that crowd is not a fluke, and he is seeded below people he has already beaten.
Women’s singles
What the consensus says
This is the discipline where the previews disagree most, and it comes down to one fitness question. An Se-young is top seed, Olympic champion and has five World Tour titles already this season — but she withdrew from the Japan Open in July with pain in her left foot, skipped the China Open entirely, and has said she is willing to play through lingering pain in Delhi. She has not won a world title since 2023.
Akane Yamaguchi is the defending champion and already has three world titles, second only to Zhang Ning among women. Wang Zhiyi, seeded 3, won the All England this year and is chasing a first world crown. And the home story is PV Sindhu at seed 9, who in July became the first Indian to win the Japan Open — beating Yamaguchi 21-17, 21-17 in the final to end a 19-month title drought.
Our pick
Winner: Akane Yamaguchi. We are going against the top seed here. A foot injury is the single worst thing to carry into a seven-day knockout in women’s singles, where the rallies are long and the defensive retrieval load is brutal — and An Se-young has played almost no competitive badminton since mid-July. Yamaguchi has won this title three times, including last year, and does not need to be at her sharpest to reach the second week.
Dark horse: PV Sindhu (seed 9, India). Not a sentimental pick. She has beaten the defending champion in a final within the last month, she has a genuinely favourable opening, and she is a five-time World Championships medallist who has never needed to be world number one to medal here. A home crowd in a knockout format is worth real points.
Men’s doubles
What the consensus says
Almost every preview calls this the hardest title to call, and the record backs it: six different pairs from five countries have won the last six editions. Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae are the defending champions and world number one, chasing the first Korean men’s doubles title defence — but their 2026 has cooled sharply. After 11 titles in 2025 they have won only the Malaysia Open and All England this year, lost semi-finals at the Singapore and Indonesia Opens, and then lost consecutive finals to Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri at the Japan and China Opens.
We know we have been analysed and picked apart, and we just have to figure out how to overcome this. — Seo Seung-jae
That quote is the story of this event. Fajar and Fikri, seeded 2, are the form pair. Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang at 3 and Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik at 4 are both former world champions or medallists, and India’s Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty at 5 have a bye into the round of 32 and a home crowd.
Our pick
Winner: Fajar Alfian / Muhammad Shohibul Fikri. Beating the world number one in two consecutive finals is not a coincidence, and Seo’s own comment — that they have been analysed and picked apart — is a rare public admission that the puzzle has been solved by someone. We would rather back the pair holding the solution.
Dark horse: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy / Chirag Shetty (seed 5, India). They ended a two-year title drought at the Singapore Open this season and were runners-up in Thailand. In a discipline this open, a seeded pair with a first-round bye playing in front of a home crowd is a live contender rather than a nice story.
Women’s doubles
What the consensus says
The shortest section here, because almost nobody is arguing. Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning are world number one, defending champions, and have had a season without precedent — three Super 1000 titles in one campaign, the first women’s pair to manage that since the World Tour began in 2018, taking the Malaysia Open, the India Open and the All England.
Behind them, Yuki Fukushima and Mayu Matsumoto are seeded 2 and Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee 3. The draw also lost its sixth seeds, Kim Hye-jeong and Kong Hee-yong, to a withdrawal, which thins out one quarter considerably.
Our pick
Winner: Liu Shengshu / Tan Ning. This is the most confident call on the page. A treble of Super 1000s in a single season is a dominance signal that does not usually evaporate inside one week.
Dark horse: Baek Ha-na / Lee So-hee (seed 3, Korea). Lee So-hee has been winning at this level for a decade, and experience in a knockout where the top seeds have never been pushed all season is worth more than the ranking gap suggests.
Mixed doubles
What the consensus says
The most disrupted draw of the five. The defending champions, Malaysia’s Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei — the first Malaysian pair to win the mixed title — are not here, after Toh’s ACL surgery. The seventh seeds, Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet, have also withdrawn. That leaves Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping, world number one and top seeds, as the clear pair to beat, arriving off three straight finals of which they won two, including the Japan Open.
China holds four of the top eight seeds in this discipline. The most plausible non-Chinese challenges are Mathias Christiansen and Alexandra Bøje at 3, Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran at 4, and Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue at 5.
Our pick
Winner: Feng Yanzhe / Huang Dongping. With the defending champions absent and the seventh seeds gone, the top seeds inherit a materially easier path to the final than they had any right to expect.
Dark horse: Thom Gicquel / Delphine Delrue (seed 5, France). The withdrawals have opened the bottom half, and this is the pair best placed to take advantage of a draw that has lost two of its most dangerous units.
Our five picks at a glance
Discipline
Our pick
Dark horse
Confidence
Men’s singles
Shi Yuqi (1)
Victor Lai (7)
Wrong — out in round one
Women’s singles
Akane Yamaguchi (2)
PV Sindhu (9)
Low — injury-dependent
Men’s doubles
Fajar / Fikri (2)
Satwik / Chirag (5)
Low — most open draw
Women’s doubles
Liu Shengshu / Tan Ning (1)
Baek / Lee (3)
Very high
Mixed doubles
Feng Yanzhe / Huang Dongping (1)
Gicquel / Delrue (5)
High
Seed numbers in brackets. Predictions made on 15 August 2026, before the first round.
Two of those five go against the top seed, and one of them — women’s singles — we would happily be talked out of if An Se-young looks free of pain in her opening match. That is the one to watch on day one.
Common questions
Who is the favourite to win the BWF World Championships 2026?
In men’s singles, top seed and defending champion Shi Yuqi of China. In women’s singles, top seed An Se-young of Korea, though her fitness is in question after a foot injury in July. Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning are the strongest favourites of all five disciplines in women’s doubles.
Who are the defending champions in Delhi?
Shi Yuqi (men’s singles), Akane Yamaguchi (women’s singles), Kim Won-ho and Seo Seung-jae (men’s doubles) and Liu Shengshu and Tan Ning (women’s doubles) are all back to defend. The mixed doubles champions, Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei, have withdrawn.
Can India win a medal at the 2026 World Championships?
Realistically yes. Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty are seeded 5 in men’s doubles with a first-round bye, and PV Sindhu is seeded 9 in women’s singles with a favourable opening and a Japan Open title from July. India has medalled at every World Championships since 2011.
Which discipline is hardest to predict?
Men’s doubles, without much argument. Six different pairs from five countries have won the title in the last six editions, and the world number one pair has lost two consecutive finals to the second seeds.
Kreeda is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Badminton World Federation. Predictions are editorial opinion based on publicly reported seedings, results and form, published before the tournament began. Nothing here is betting advice.
